Review: Night Beach by Kristy Eagar.

Night Beach by Kristy Eagar
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'Breath-Takingly Dark, Raw & Powerful'

Rating:♥♥♥♥♥
Add to your TBR on Goodreads:Here
Kristy Eagar's Website:Here
buy on Amazon:

Summary:

'Imagine there is someone you like so much that just thinking about them leaves you desperate and reckless. You crave them in a way that's not rational, not right, and you're becoming somebody you don't recognise, and certainly don't respect, but you don't even care. And this person you like is unattainable. Except for one thing... He lives downstairs.'Abbie has three obsessions. Art. The ocean. And Kane.

But since Kane's been back, he's changed. There's a darkness shadowing him that only Abbie can see. And it wants her in its world.A gothic story about the very dark things that feed the creative process.

My Review: 

"This is what I love about life. The UP. You can be completely down & out one moment, and in the next you feel like you're flying, for no reason at all"

  Night Beach is simply a breath taking novel! Kristy Eagar writes with such raw passion & heart breaking reality.. ..her characters are fleshed out with raw & fragile human emotions & it's impossible to dislike any of them.

 

"It's that part of him, whatever it is that means he can do that, which has infected me. It would be easy if there was some way of getting him out of my system. That transaction would probably be straightforward enough - if he he took me seriously. But the sad truth is, I don't want just him, I want him to like me. "

I've never felt such a strong connection to a character in a novel as i felt towards Abbie..I felt As if she had been ripped right from inside me, her teenage fragile mind filled with hope & wonder for what way lay ahead, her imperfections & her obsessions....Where all mine in one form or another  ..some people may simply pitty her or Dislike her..

Yes she's obsessive.

Yes she's insecure

& yes she has a very distinctive view of the world but that's what maybe me love her so!

But the way I see it, people who go spending themselves easily don't have low self-esteem. They have really high self-esteem. If someone like me tried to live like that there would be nothing left Abbie - Page 83

  Kristy had such a beautiful way of blending abbie's reality & dreams until you didn't know where one ended & the other began.

 

 "Sleep is so strange. The fact that we have to sleep. The fact that we are helpless while it happens. The fact that we can't hold on to our dreams after we have them. It really is a mystery."

  Kristy does a fresh take on a coming of age story, with its Aussie surfer slang & true to life Characters....

“At seventeen, I’m in-between. Staring at the carnival from a distance. Not sure if I want to go forward and become an adult; liking the view too much to turn back.”

 

it also shows the beauty of first love (even if it's unrequited), first heart breaks, and understanding of our place in the world especially in family and most important the understandings of ourselves.  

"I don't want romance and stolen and kisses and sweetness and hand holding. I want something so big it's like two planets colliding, with an aftershock I will feel for the rest of my life."

  That being said its not your everyday ya novel....Night Beach does have some dark under tones, that sweep you up & catch you by surprise.

 

  Kane's never been safe. Ultimately, he's never been within reach. That's the key to why I'm so caught up on him - I know that. I'm obsessed. And what feeds an obsession is not getting what you want. "

So if your considering reading Night Beach..stop thinking about it & just grab it because Kristy Eagar is AMAZEBALLS & so is this breathtaking novel!





Review: Complete Work of Edgar Allen Poe.

The Complete Work of Edgar Allen Poe.

By Edgar Allen Poe.

Rating: ♥♥♥♥

"Vintage Classics"

"Those who dream by day are cognizant of many things that escape those who dream only at night. "

Poe, Poe, Poe.....what can I possibly say about such an writer, such a icon, such a master of gothic literature!...probably some thing dark, smart & witty... In true Poe form but... I'm not so much on the smart or witty side ...

So I'll stick with the undeniable fact......Edgar Allen Poe is a writing genius mad or not!

“I became insaine, with horrible initials of sanity.” 

There's something so raw & human in poe's work, it's beautiful to read & such a joy!

*que gothic happy dance*

 , 

"Arousing from the most profound of slumbers, we break the gossamer web of some dream."

His Words just flow  effortlessly, it's like reading liquid.

you become transfixed & drawn into his stories, into his world of darkness, mystery, sorrow, beauty, death, love & loss.

<b>“We loved with a love that was more than love.” 

My favorites (out of many) were the  Teletaleheart, Murders at the Rue Mourge, The Raven, Annabel lea,

“And all I loved, I loved alone.” 

Some stories/poems/writings were better then others, they  had more finesse,  more structure. Which is the reason Why on the whole rated it 4 stars instead of 5.

“Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there wondering, fearing, Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before” 

ultimately it was a very engaging  & unique read.  i defiantly did not read it one go, I potted through it over many weeks & even downloaded an audio version for ease, even a reader with a most insatiable  appetite would be pleased with this book which must have Poe fans every where screaming with utter joy!

 “There is no beauty without some strangeness”

It is very much a novel in which only a true "Poe" fan could digest & stll crave more, for me we'll I may re-read my favorites & rejoice in their beauty but I honest to god will never be able  to the whole thing again! 

 “I was never kinder to the old man than during the whole week before I killed him.”

But if you have never hap the pleasure of a story or poem please go find out & find one there defiantly worth it.

 “all thae see or seem is but a dream within a dream.”

Review: Classic Victorian & Edwardian Ghost Stories

Classic Victorian & Edwardian Ghost Stories Collection By Rex Collings.

Rating: ♥♥♥1/2

Synopsis:

This is a book to be read by a blazing fire on a winter's night, with the curtains drawn close and the doors securely locked. The unquiet souls of the dead, both as fictional creations and as 'real' apparitions, roam the pages of this haunting new selection of ghost stories by Rex Collings. Some of these stories are classics while others are lesser-known gems unearthed from this vintage era of tales of the supernatural. There are stories from distant lands - Fisher's Ghost by John Lang is set in Australia and A Ghostly Manifestation by 'A Clergyman' is set in Calcutta. In this selection, Sir Walter Scott (a Victorian in spirit if not in fact), keeps company with Edgar Allen Poe, Sheridan Le Fanu and other illustrious masters of the genre."

Review:

Some stories are interesting & engaging some, well not so much.

Some are classic unforgettable Litature, like the "telltale heart" & others Are bitter sweet like "Phemie's Story".

All in all it was quite a good read, & there defiantly was not a "Ghostly" part in the whole thing, in fact majority if not all the book is quite "Ghost Free".....& if you chance upon a copy in a second hand book shop, you should maybe give it a go......

You might be delightfully un-spooked!

Review: Dreams Of Darkness by Barry James

Dreams of Darkness by Barry James.
Rating: ♥♥♥♥

Buy it on Amazon Here: Here

Barry's Website: Here

Dreams of Darkness on GR: Here

Jordan Hanson is having a bad day,ok the worst bad day in the history of the world, he just doesn't know it yet.

I was pleasantly surprised with dreams of darkness, from the Synopsis & the genre I thought it was just going to be a run of the mill horror novel but it turned out to be so much more. I also really enjoyed a male point of view, from both the character & author for a change.

Barry has done a wonderful job at bring this story to life , with such a complex plot & characters you would think you'd be weighted down or be utterly confused but I never was!

I really can't put into words how much I enjoyed it with out blabbering like a fool, so I'll simply say the plot, the Characters, the writing where all superb, if your into horror, urban fantasy or paranormal its a must read! Hopefully there's a second but at the same time hopefully not because this book stands strong on its own.

Review: Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte

Wuthering Heights 

by Emily Bronte

Rating:♥♥♥♥♥♥

Goodreads:Here

It's always hard reviewing a book you love so deeply, to review a book I hate is quite a joy same with ones I like & ones I slightly love a bit tricky but able, but a book you adore, a book of near perfection almost impossible, but I shall dutifully try.

I believe it was Mark Twain who famously said “Classic' - a book which people praise and don't read.” or a least read once praise continually & never plan on reading again....right? Well I would have agreed with you until I picked up a little know demonic romance novel by Emily Brontë & was utterly flawed, with it's utter perfection.

Mr Lockwood, a rich man from the south, has rented Thrushcross Grange in the north of England for peace and recuperation. Soon after arrival, he visits his landlord, Mr Heathcliff, who lives in the remote moorland farmhouse called "Wuthering Heights". He finds the inhabitants of Wuthering Heights to be a strange group: Mr Heathcliff appears a gentleman but his manners and speech suggest otherwise; the mistress of the house is in her late teens, an attractive but reserved, even rude woman; and there is a young man who appears to be one of the family although he dresses and talks like a servant.

Being snowed in, he has to stay the night and is shown to an unused chamber where he finds books and graffiti from a former inhabitant of the farmhouse called "Catherine". When he falls asleep, his dreams are prompted by this person and he has a nightmare where he sees her as a ghost trying to get in through the window. He wakes and is unable to return to sleep so, as soon as the sun rises, he is escorted back to Thrushcross Grange by Heathcliff. There he asks his housekeeper, Ellen Dean, to tell him the story of the family from the Heights.

& this is were we learn the entire history of the inhabits of the heights & thrush cross grange throughout births, deaths, marriages, love, loss, revenge & intense passion we hear from nelly how these peculiar inhabits came to be.

I firstly decide to read wuthering heights on a whim, I would like to say to broaden my enjoyment of classic English literature but it wasn't, it was...well this sounds kinda odd but because of the classic Kate bush song "Wuthering Heights" the song supposedly makes more sense once you've read the book (in which it does) but anyway I downloaded a audio copy & decided to listen to it while doing house work which I did, My neighbors must think me quite mad because I was constantly dropping my jaw, fuming with anger, near tears & smiling like a cheasha cat, all of which while cleaning...surely it can't be that entertaing, well it is, not the cleaning part tho...lol

Some people have mentioned the annoyance of being narrated the story by house servant nelly & also mr lockwood but being I loved it, being audio (& reading my paperback latter) I felt as if I was being told the story by nelly myself so on that level it worked really well.

I found the audio for "free" at Librivox Recording, I'm not much for audio books but this was great you can download other free novels & poems at http://librivox.org

If I was reading an e-book I would have highlighted so much of it there would barley a line un-coloured, Emily's writing is nothing less then beautiful. Wuthering Heights Is Why I Read

I still am baffled how Emily could make me read let alone love such deplorable unjust characters each with their own selfish & insidious nature, Yet she did. Which is such a credit to her writing These characters are so very, very flawed & My hatred & pity for them is endless but I simply hate yet i cant not love them Emily made so I would, that's why years latter We're still talking about WH, still being baffled by it & will continue to, as i continue to adore her work.

After reading wuthering heights I felt numb, emotional less. All my emotions has been striped away until I felt bare & numb. It was quite a complexing feeling, I've truly never felt like that after a book, it's just simply that good.

How could I not include some quotes I'm a quoting addict & by god these are beautiful quotes.

"The intense horror of nightmare came over me: I tried to draw back my arm, but the hand clung to it, and a most melancholy voice sobbed, 'Let me in - let me in!' 'Who are you?' I asked, struggling, meanwhile, to disengage myself. 'Catherine Linton,' it replied, shiveringly (why did I think of LINTON? I had read EARNSHAW twenty times for Linton) - 'I'm come home: I'd lost my way on the moor!' As it spoke, I discerned, obscurely, a child's face looking through the window."

- Emily Bronte, Wuthering Heights, Ch. 3 (mr Lockwood)

"Terror made me cruel; and finding it useless to attempt shaking the creature off, I pulled its wrist on to the broken pane, and rubbed it to and fro till the blood ran down and soaked the bedclothes..."

- Emily Bronte, Wuthering Heights, Ch. 3

"I'm trying to settle how I shall pay Hindley back. I don't care how long I wait, if I can only do it at last. I hope he will not die before I do!"

- Emily Bronte, Wuthering Heights, Ch. 7 (Heathcliff)

"he had ceased to express his fondness for her in words, and recoiled with angry suspicion from her girlish caresses, as if conscious there could be no gratification in lavishing such marks of affection on him."

- Emily Bronte, Wuthering Heights, Ch. 8 (Nelly)

"It would degrade me to marry Heathcliff now; so he shall never know how I love him: and that, not because he's handsome, Nelly, but because he's more myself than I am. Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same; and Linton's is as different as a moonbeam from lightning, or frost from fire."

- Emily Bronte, Wuthering Heights, Ch. 9 (Catherine earnshaw- linton)

"If all else perished, and he remained, I should still continue to be; and if all else remained, and he were annihilated, the universe would turn to a mighty stranger: I should not seem a part of it."

- Emily Bronte, Wuthering Heights, Ch. 9 (Catherine earnshaw- linton)

"Nelly, I am Heathcliff! He's always, always in my mind: not as a pleasure, any more than I am always a pleasure to myself, but as my own being."

- Emily Bronte, Wuthering Heights, Ch. 9 (Catherine earnshaw- linton)

"'I seek no revenge on you,' replied Heathcliff, less vehemently. 'That's not the plan. The tyrant grinds down his slaves and they don't turn against him; they crush those beneath them. You are welcome to torture me to death for your amusement, only allow me to amuse myself a little in the same style, and refrain from insult as much as you are able. Having levelled my palace, don't erect a hovel and complacently admire your own charity in giving me that for a home. If I imagined you really wished me to marry Isabel, I'd cut my throat!'"

- Emily Bronte, Wuthering Heights, Ch. 11 (Heathcliff)

"It is not in him to be loved like me: how can she love in him what he has not?"

- Emily Bronte, Wuthering Heights, Ch. 14 (Heathcliff)

"That is how I'm loved! Well, never mind. That is not my Heathcliff. I shall love mine yet; and take him with me: he's in my soul."

- Emily Bronte, Wuthering Heights, Ch. 15 (Catherine earnshaw- linton)

"Kiss me again, but don't let me see your eyes! I forgive what you have done to me. I love my murderer--but yours! How can I?"

- Emily Bronte, Wuthering Heights, Ch. 15 (Heathcliff)

"'And I pray one prayer--I repeat it till my tongue stiffens--Catherine Earnshaw, may you not rest as long as I am living; you said I killed you--haunt me, then! The murdered DO haunt their murderers, I believe. I know that ghosts HAVE wandered on earth. Be with me always--take any form--drive me mad! only DO not leave me in this abyss, where I cannot find you! Oh, God! it is unutterable! I CANNOT live without my life! I CANNOT live without my soul!'"

- Emily Bronte, Wuthering Heights, Ch. 16 (Heathcliff)

"Is Mr. Heathcliff a man? If so, is he mad? And if not, is he a devil? I sha'n't tell my reasons for making this inquiry; but I beseech you to explain, if you can, what I have married."

- Emily Bronte, Wuthering Heights. (Isabella lintion-Heathcliff)

"He wanted all to lie in an ecstasy of peace; I wanted all to sparkle and dance in a glorious jubilee. I said his heaven would be only half alive; and he said mine would be drunk: I said I should fall asleep in his; and he said he could not breathe in mine..."

- Emily Bronte, Wuthering Heights, Ch. 24 (Catherine lintion-Heathcliff-earnshaw.)

"I have lost the faculty of enjoying their destruction, and I am too idle to destroy for nothing."

- Emily Bronte, Wuthering Heights, Ch. 33 (Heathcliff)

"Last night, I was on the threshold of hell. To-day, I am within sight of my heaven. I have my eyes on it: hardly three feet to sever me!"

- Emily Bronte, Wuthering Heights, Ch. 34 (Heathcliff)

 

That Awesome picture has been done by An artist named gerre to see more of her work visit http://gerre.deviantart.com/ & other great WH fan Art on http://wutheringheightsfc.deviantart.com/ to http://lacevintagebookbloggeraddict.blogspot.com.au